West Bridge Journals

Diving for Artifacts

Larry said, “Look at this,” as his head popped up out of the water. He was holding what looked like a smoking pipe, but an old one. I had seen that type of pipe before but only in old paintings, or rather pictures of old paintings in books. It was made of clay and had a very long stem with a small appendage at the bottom of the bowl. On the stem was the word, “Holland.” That was over 50 years ago. Larry was born and raised in Newport, Florida, and I think a descendent of Daniel Ladd, one of the original settlers of Newport. He had moved up to Albany to live with his sister and from the day we met, we became best friends. We had many great adventures together, but the one summer we spent with his father in Newport was one of those that you remember forever. I was around 14 years old then, and the things we did during those four weeks would have made Ole Huck Finn proud. We lived on that river, fishing, swimming, or diving everyday. It was a five minute walk from Larry’s house to our boat, and we would run to save time.

Newport had about 30 residents back then. It wasn’t a ghost town yet, but was a long way from the time when it had nearly 2000 people, with its wood plank road going to Tallahassee. The ‘Old Plank Road’ is still there, but under the dirt now. Fifty years ago the draw bridge was the most prominent feature with the bridge operator’s house and the two catwalks underneath. I can close my eyes and still see Larry and me in cut off jeans and nothing else, fishing off the catwalks. The draw bridge and catwalks are gone now, and the residents are down to just a few. About all that is left are the memories, and the following is one that tops them all.

We had swim mask and snorkels and did some diving when the tide was out, and one day we were diving about a hundred yards down the river from the bridge when Larry found that pipe. After checking out the pipe, we both went back down and saw where the bottom was covered with debris on one side of the river. We saw a lot of broken dishes with most having a blue pattern, along with broken old bottles and clay pottery. We brought several pieces up and put them in the boat. After a couple of more dives, I found a pipe bowl, then some stems from the pipes. All in all, over the next couple of weeks, I found 11 pipes bowls and about twice that many stems. Larry found about the same, but neither of us found another like the first one that Larry found. One of my Pipes had the letters TD surrounded by 13 stars. That was a real prize. I still have the pipes and stems today, however, after dropping the box they were in, I had to glue some of the bowls back together. One went missing at a “Show and tell,” at school. Another prize was a clay bottle in near mint condition that I found on one of my dives. That bottle sits on my window sill with its sister today. I have since learned that it is an old civil war relic, a ginger beer bottle.

I have also recently learned that the TD on the pipe may have stood for Thomas Dormer that was once a popular English pipe maker active between 1748 and 1770. It was his trade mark, and it was copied for many years afterwards. The 13 stars stood for the 13 original states, and this style of pipe became popular during and after the war of 1812. How the pipes came to be at that spot, was believed to be a wrecked boat, or one that was overturned. As word of what we found got out, a couple of divers with scuba gear showed up one day and started looking around and found a lot of civil war era Minnie Balls, and other items of that time period. In 1865, Some say that the Union Navy tried to go up the river from the town of Saint Marks on the river that bore its name, but could not make it. So the Union Army in an attempt to capture the capitol marched to the natural bridge up the river from Newport and was defeated there. That is now called the Battle of the Natural Bridges. So the natural assumption is one of the union boats might have made it as this far and was attacked at Newport and sunk or capsized. At any rate that seems the only logical reason why so much stuff of that time period was found there in that one spot. Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

That area has been picked clean over the years and I doubt there is even one item left. Even the University of Georgia had a team come down years later to dive on the spot, but that is another good story altogether that I must tell later. As for Larry and I, we grew up and went our separate ways, but remain friends even today. I’ve been back many times camping at that bridge with other men and young boys from church, but those childhood memories are still the best.

Oh, and those two divers I was talking about? Larry sold that “Holland” pipe to one of them for 10 dollars. Something we both regret today. But the adventure was priceless…

David Butler

Post note: If I thought that Florida History would be served I would gladly donate my pipes to a local museum to share with others.